Monday, February 06, 2006

GoDaddy's soap opera: where's the Big Idea?

By now the GoDaddy Super Bowl commercial has probably run out of steam, and one wonders what all the fuss was about --by GoDaddy, not ABC. Meaning, why would a company go to such lengths to defend such a lame commercial? If the whole 'malfunction' issue is the only idea, then it is not only out of date, but irrelevant. This could very well have been a Super Bowl beer commercial from a time when agencies and clients didn't know better. (Anyone remember the 'Swedish Bikini Team' and the Miller Light's 'Catfight' commercial?)

But Bob Parsons supposedly knows better, judging from the media statements and blog that insist this unnecessary controversy has garnered the company more advertising than the the ads could have achieved. If anything, the strategy to get people to come to the web site to watch the banned versions of the dumb commercial, may pay off. It's a domain registrar, after all. But GoDaddy wants to be remembered as a company who is pusing the buttons. See how someone has cleverly included the window-washer girl in this Wikipedia entry which obviously has been updated today!

I can hardly fault GoDaddy for the poor taste in the commercial. This is, after all the product of an advertising agency, who ought to know better --about branding. As a marketer, where is GoDaddy really going with this? If you have the moolah to splurge, there is a more responsible way to build your brand than spend it on old story line about a broken strap that is irrelevant to your product offering, anyway.

Speaking about storylines, take the FedEx commercial, 'stick' which was both entertaining, and still focused on what the brand stands for. The caveman tries to air-ship a stick using a pterodactyl, but the courier is snapped up by a dinasaur, mid flight. The caveman's boss fires him, and he protests that he could not have used FeDex since it does not exist. "That's not my problem," replies his boss. The poor fellow sulks outside his cave only to be squashed by a massive foot of an anonymous beast. The message: use FeDex (even if it does not exist in your cave) or else...

Ironic, isn't it how the window washer seems to have predated the caveman?